10 Defining Feminist Moments of 2009 - By Mikki Halpin, AlterNet - A look back on the times in 2009 when feminists asserted ourselves and our belief in equality, often in the face of powerful opposition. more »

Women's rights still human rights - Tracy Clark-Flory - Jan. 08, 2010 | Maybe you're feeling apathetic toward the plight of the world's women, or perhaps you're suffering from an acute case of Feminist Outrage Fatigue™. Well, you will be slapped right out of that stupor by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech Friday commemorating the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). She dished out familiar rhetoric -- like her famous line, "women's rights are human rights" -- but also dropped some cold, hard facts on our privileged first-world asses. More.

DUBAI: Jailed for being raped - Dubai tosses a British woman behind bars for "illicit sex" after she reports an assault - Tracy Clark-Flory, Jan. 08, 2010 | On New Year's Eve, a 23-year-old British woman on vacation in Dubai decided to let loose and party. She had plenty to celebrate -- not only was she ringing in 2010 at a spectacular luxury hotel with her fiance, but she also had their brand-new engagement to revel in. After one too many drinks, though, she ended up passing out in the women's bathroom of the Address Hotel. It's the sort of tale the couple might have gone on to laughingly recall -- except for what happened next: a male employee allegedly entered the restroom and raped her. The waking nightmare only got worse: More.

Europe's Roe v. Wade? - A case before the European Court of Human Rights rests on the question of whether reproductive rights should be universal.- Michelle Goldberg | December 11, 2009 | On Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, began hearing a case that has the potential to be a kind of Roe v. Wade for Europe. Three Irish women who had to travel to England for abortions are challenging their government's abortion ban, saying the expense and hardship involved constitute a violation of their human rights. Precedent suggests that the court could agree. If it does, the repercussions will go far beyond reproductive rights, raising important questions about where in Europe national sovereignty ends and international guarantees of liberty begin. More.

Tea Party, Meet the Religious Right- The upcoming tea-party convention has attracted a large number of high-profile conservative Christians. Could an alliance be next?- Michelle Goldberg | January 13, 2010 | Next month's Tea Party National Convention has been making news for the fat fee Sarah Palin is commanding -- $100,000, according to many reports. But the gathering, to be held at Nashville's Opryland Hotel, is interesting for another reason as well: It marks the attempt of the old-school Christian right to take over the tea-party movement. Speakers joining Palin include Rick Scarborough, Roy Moore, and Joseph Farah, men who are radical even by religious-right standards. Their presence shows that the tea-party movement is no longer merely populist, libertarian, or anti-government, if it ever was. It is theocratic. Indeed, after several months in which the religious right seemed lost and dispirited, it has found a way to ride the tea-party express into renewed relevance...More

Religion and Women - By NIcholas D. Kristof- Religions derive their power and popularity in part from the ethical compass they offer. So why do so many faiths help perpetuate something that most of us regard as profoundly unethical: the oppression of women?

It is not that warlords in Congo cite Scripture to justify their mass rapes (although the last warlord I met there called himself a pastor and wore a button reading “rebels for Christ”). It’s not that brides are burned in India as part of a Hindu ritual. And there’s no verse in the Koran that instructs Afghan thugs to throw acid in the faces of girls who dare to go to school. More.

NYT: Hate Begets Hate - Uganda’s government, which has a shameful record of discrimination against gay men and lesbians, is now considering legislation that would impose the death sentence for homosexual behavior. The United States and others need to make clear to the Ugandan government that such barbarism is intolerable and will make it an international pariah. More

Open Call response: I am a Man and I don’t apologize for it. - From The Wanderer's Blog - Normally I steer clear of anything more controversial than wearing socks with sandals (sometimes it makes practical sense, but not fashion sense). I have seen too many posts on either topic that emote the raw emotions that usually are more of a response to one’s own personal experience than it has to do with a larger issue of gender equality. Many may/will argue with me, but this topic is firmly rooted in the social sciences. One of the most enlightened educators (not that it matters in my view, but it was a he) I have ever had the blessings to learn from summed it up best, “Social sciences can tell you a lot about a group of people, but usually tell you nothing about an individual.” Each has had their own experiences and thus it shapes their views on the topic. More

New study shows legalizing undocumented immigrants would produce $1.5 trillion benefit:A new study by University of California at Los Angeles professor Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda for the Center for American Progress and the American Immigration Council suggests that comprehensive immigration reform, which includes an earned path to legalization for undocumented immigrants, could generate at least $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over ten years. The findings are based on a simulation model that uses the effects of legalization under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) -- which granted legal status to 1.7 million undocumented immigrants -- to calculate the effects of possible legalization today. Hinojosa also predicted the effects of an enforcement-only strategy that several right-wing politicians and anti-immigrant activists are advocating for in the place of immigration reform. The professor found that while native-born workers would experience a wage increase, any mass deportation strategy would reduce U.S. GDP by $2.6 trillion over ten years. This number doesn't even take into account the additional $206 to $230 billion it would cost just to physically deport undocumented immigrants over a five-year period. Some Republicans are more focused on promoting an expansion of temporary immigrant worker programs and have already indicated they won't support an immigration reform bill that doesn't include such provisions. Hinojosa warns that if immigration reform were to consist of only a temporary worker program, GDP would only increase by $729 billion over 10 years and result in a wage decline for both native-born and temporary immigrant workers.